Musical works act as aural records of turning points in the human story. This concert series offers a number of the most celebrated works of the canon, some reflecting major developments in thought and philosophy, and others showing the before and after of cataclysm. Across four performances, the faculty and musicians of ANAM explore the breadth of political upheaval in music, from the enlightenment utopias of Mozart to the music born out of world war, to music birthed from revolution and protest, join us for this revolutionary journey to Brave New Worlds. “Thine only gift hath been the grave to those that worshipped thee”, was Byron’s excoriation of the French tyrant in his Ode to Napoleon. In 1941 Schoenberg used Byron’s ode to denounce another tyrant, Adolf Hitler. In Nazism’s abhorrent wake, the era’s most talented young composers attempted to rebuild something new and meaningful from the rubble. They ended up creating lasting beauties that commemorated the human catastrophe their generation had witnessed.

Joseph HAYDN Kaiserhymne Arnold SCHÖENBERG Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, op. 41 Pierre BOULEZ 12 Notations Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN Klavierstück IX Dimitri SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio no. 2 in E minor, op. 67